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Latest Southlands proposal again divides community

Delta public hearings continue Tuesday and Wednesday

Developer Sean Hodgins acknowledged the Southlands project has divided the populace and said he has worked hard to come up with a plan ‘that would benefit everybody in the community.’

Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann
, Vancouver Sun

The 30-year-old battle over Delta’s Southlands was reignited Monday as hundreds of residents turned out for the first of three public hearings on the latest development project planned for the former Tsawwassen farmland.

More than 96 people registered to speak Monday on the project by Century Group, which calls for 950 townhomes, cottages, small family homes and a farmers market on the 217-hectare former site of the Spetifore Farm.

The plan, the latest in a series of eight development applications, has once again split the community, with those in favour wearing orange-and-white YES stickers, and those opposed donning red ball caps that read “No Houses” and waving house-shaped pieces of plastic with NO! on them.

“This project will not provide any net benefit to Tsawwassen,” said Paul Biedermann. “It will destroy it.”

But those in favour of the project argued the proposal would provide much needed housing options for all of Delta, connect Boundary Bay with the rest of the community and give Delta control over 174 hectares of the land, which would pass into public ownership for conservation, park space and a community farm and farm school.

“I like to think to think it will bring some life to this community,” said supporter Henk Veldhuis, who has lived in Tsawwassen for 25 years. “Let’s give this community a chance to heal our differences so we as a community can move forward.”

Controversy has dogged every development application proposed for Southlands, sparking the longest public hearing in Canadian history in 1989 and a failed attempt by Delta to have the land put back in the Agricultural Land Reserve.

The land was removed from the ALR in 1981, not by the Agricultural Land Commission but in a decision of the Social Credit government of the day, though it is still zoned for agricultural use by the Corporation of Delta. Only about 40 hectares of the land is used for growing potatoes and barley.

Developer Sean Hodgins acknowledged the Southlands project has divided the populace and said he has worked hard to come up with a plan “that would benefit everybody in the community.”

The latest plan proposes less than half of the original 1,950 dwellings sought in 2009 by the developer. Century has offered to provide $9 million to Delta for drainage and irrigation work.

But those opposed to development on the lands argued the move would pave over desperately needed agricultural land, increase traffic, overwhelm the local shopping centre and build homes on a known flood plain and wetland habitat. They also questioned why council was continuing to hear project proposals for the land.

Jean Wightman drew cheers and applause as she urged Delta council to deny fourth reading of the proposal, saying fits neither with zoning in the community plan nor with Metro Vancouver’s regional growth strategy. “We are not Richmond, we are not Surrey and I hope we never will be,” she said.

However, Shawna Nickel said she would dearly love the chance to move back to Tsawwassen, where she grew up. She and her husband were forced to moved to Cloverdale because of the lack of affordable housing for young families in her hometown, she said, but they have since started their own business in Tsawwassen.

“We’re excited about the prospect of growth for this area,” Nickel said. “It took me about two weeks to realize the rest of the Lower Mainland is not like it was here and I want to come back.”

The public hearing, at the South Delta Recreation Centre, will continue Tuesday and Wednesday, from 3 to 9:30 p.m.

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